Pyridyl disulfides have been described to be good topical antibacterial or antifungal agents for use in shampoos, wound dressings or soaps. Unsymmetrical disulfides for this use are disclosed in M. L. Douglas, U.S. Pat. No. 4,049,665. Column 7, line 66 of the Douglas patent describes the concentration of disulfide in topical compositions to be from 0.1-99%.
Other publications describe topical antimicrobial compositions using certain active ingredients which are also used in the present invention: R. A. Damico, U.S. Pat. No. 3,773,770; W. Walter et al., Ann. Chem. 727 35-49 (1969); G. Wagner et al., Z. Chem. 2 86-7 1967 (Chem. Abs. 58, 5776d). T. Fujii et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,258,193 discloses certain 2-oxo-pyridyl-amino acid disulfides as intermediates for preparing other disulfides.
The cited publications do not disclose any utility for the active ingredients of this invention which involves internal use as components of supplemented feed compositions to increase the growth of monogastric animals.